My original purchases came from a model aeroplane shop,
and the charger sold to me was a Parkzone 2-3 cell balancing Li-Po charger,
which was OK for the Parkzone batteries which charged and discharged through the balancing wires.

I subsequently purchased a 680AC professional balance charger/discharger made by HJ,
which has two main wires plus separate multi cell balance wires.

The original charger has no discharge facility,
but the later charger seems to have no facility to deal with batteries having common charging/discharging wires.

So my queries are:

1. Is it essential that partly discharged (or even fully charged) batteries are returned to the recommended storage state?

2. Does anyone have experience of modifying balance wire only batteries to enable them to be used with the later style charger?

3. Is it possible to use the original charger for discharge purposes
(it came unboxed broken from a set and without a manual),
although there seems to be no facility for this?

4. I have experienced batteries self discharging apparently because left attached to a receiver although it was switched off.
Is there any way of reviving these?

Without experience I had inclined towards getting the largest possible batteries to fit an available space.

But probably it would be better to try and match them to the expected work required,
once of course that is known.

I have a charger with two heavy wires for the main charging leads and three balance wires as well,
that I use for a 2S battery with just three wires coming out of it.
I found I had to connect both the two heavy wires,
and the three balance wires to the 2S stack, to get the charger to work.

I connected the positive heavy wire and the positive balance wire together,
also the negative heavy wire and the negative balance wire together.
The charger is for other types of cells as well, not just Li-Po,
and the other types of course do not need the balance connection.

BUT this probably depends on the charger,
so I would read the instructions very carefully first!

On the discharge question,

I also do not discharge the batteries to mid-charge before storage,
although it is usually only a month or two at most between outings.

You should not find the batteries run down if the receiver is switched off,
but it must be with a switch, not just with the receiver on standby.

If the batteries are completely flat do not try to recharge them,
it will not work and may cause them to leak etc.
Li-Po batteries should not be recharged if below 3.0 volts per cell.